Research

NASA's Mars-bound InSight spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on November 26, the U.S. space agency said. If all goes according to plan, InSight will streak into the pink Martian sky almost 24 hours later at 12,000 miles per hour (19,310 kilometers per hour). (more...)

Like countless reports before it, including the UN's special report from October, the study also concludes, based on extensive evidence, that human activities are the dominant cause of global warming. But they need to go down much further and faster to avoid dire consequences. The Trump administration is downplaying the importance of the findings. (more...)

He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done. "All medical advances, gene editing or otherwise and particularly those that impact vulnerable populations, should be cautiously and thoughtfully tested, discussed openly with patients, physicians, scientists, and other community members, and implemented in an equitable way". (more...)

But the Labour leader said Mrs May had brought home a "botched deal that was a bad deal for the country" and that "ploughing on is not stoic, it is an act of national self-harm". "Or this House can choose to reject this deal and go back to square one ... It's the best deal possible and the European Union will not change its fundamental position when it comes to these issues", he said. (more...)

The landing triggered celebrations across the globe, prompting one complicated handshake between InSight team members that's captivating viewers. The unmanned spacecraft is NASA's first to touch down on Earth's neighboring planet since the Curiosity rover arrived in 2012. (more...)

Several haters argued that Trump talking about weather did amount to a discussion on climate, but the temperature on a single day, even when observed over time, can not be compared to global warming. And coastal flooding is projected to force communities to move elsewhere. The 2018 National Climate Assessment addresses the change in temperatures globally, 'Over climate timescales of multiple decades. (more...)

This artist's impression obtained from NASA shows InSight's entry, descent and landing at Mars. But the US has pulled off seven successful Mars landings in the past three decades. In addition to the live stream, viewing parties will be held across the United States to celebrate the InSight landing. The final tone transmitted, which will hopefully be followed very shortly after by a basic, low-res picture of the lander's surroundings, is expected to arrive at NASA at around 3 p.m. (more...)

Half of the whales were already dead and due to the condition of the remaining whales and the remote, difficult-to-access location, the decision was made to euthanise the remainder. Many factors could contribute to such whale and dolphin strandings, including sickness, navigational error, geographical features, a rapidly falling tide, being chased by a predator, or extreme weather, the DOC said. (more...)

That includes worsening air pollution causing heart and lung problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for a jump in deaths duringheat waves, and nastier allergies. "Warmer and drier conditions have contributed to an increase in large forest fires in the western United States and interior Alaska", according to the report. (more...)

The phenomenon is already disrupting local communities in the US, and could cost the USA economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year without a significant effort to stop it, researchers found. The assessment's dire conclusions are at odds with President Trump's efforts to dismiss the threat of climate change and his administration's push to slash environmental regulations and allow more planet-warming pollution. (more...)

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla Motors, has faced increased scrutiny over his volatile behavior, including smoking marijuana during a podcast interview earlier this year and assailing a man involved in the Thailand cave rescue as a " pedo guy ". (more...)

Academic engineers in the United States have built and flown the first-ever aircraft with no moving parts and no combustion, portending the possible dawn of a novel aerodynamics technology almost 115 years after the Wright brothers flew the first heavier-than-air machine. (more...)

First reported by The Washington Post , the space agency is looking at a months-long review to understand and evalute the workplace culture of two of its most prominent contractors. Since then, the companies have faced setbacks and delays as they work to develop their spacecraft . NASA has revealed the nine astronauts that will soon take to space aboard the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon. (more...)

The Mars 2020 rover mission will be looking signs of past microbial life and collect samples of rocks that will be retrieved by future explorers. The site offers a "geologically rich terrain" featuring landforms that date back billions of years. (more...)

A dead whale washed ashore in Indonesia with a large lump of plastic waste in its gut. A picture from WWF of the stomach's content showed that the whale had even swallowed what looked like a piece of a melamine dining plate. Other animals that consume seafood also ingest plastic, so do every other organism that follows in the food chain. It's not known exactly how the whale died. (more...)

The planet is orbiting a nearby star. Located six light-years away from the Sun, Barnard's star is the second-closest star system to the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple system; it is also the closest single star to the Sun. 'Fortunately, our long-running Keck planet search program gave us the years we needed to gather enough precision radial velocity data with HIRES to begin to sense the presence of a planet'. (more...)

While generating plasma at such high temperatures, there are still many milestones that will need to be overcome before fusion becomes a reliable source of energy. With the help of Tokamak devices like EAST, this might be possible. He said that the achievement by EAST will be important to the development of the next major experiment in global nuclear fusion science: the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ( ITER ). (more...)

Less than six light-years away from our Sun, the potential planet orbits Barnard's Star, a well-studied low-mass red dwarf star in the Ophiuchus constellation. When the next generation of telescopes come online, scientists will be able to characterise the planet's properties. They know it must be at least three times as massive as Earth, but it could be even larger . (more...)

If it strengthens into a tropical storm it would become Patty, the 16th named storm of 2018. The wave is now producing a large area of disturbed weather, and the NHC said conditions should be conducive for it to develop into a full-fledged tropical storm or hurricane Tuesday or Wednesday. (more...)